Ask of Me

Ask of Me. That is the condition- God desires a praying people, willing and obedient.

E.M. Bounds.[ Purpose in Prayer. Chapter 1. pg. 11]

 We are dependant on God for everything. The strength I have today is a gift from God. The breath I breathe, I breathe because God allows it. My heart beats at  His command and gravity works because  He tells it to work. As I walk through life there are times I am tempted to act as if I have some power.  Actually, I am a steward of his power. When I was a boy I wanted to be a great singer, it never happened, now I realize that if I had been a great singer or a great musician I would have never become what I was called to be, a pastor. All I have is a gift. Whenever I hear someone say, ‘I can’t do this without God’ I always want to say, ‘What can you do without God?’  Thankfulness for what I can do should be part of my life.

We need to be aware that God’s natural gifting has limits.   We also have callings and the results of those callings surpass the limits on those gifts.  For example, there are certain abilities God has given me to be a dad but the real work of fatherhood, turning out fully devoted believers that know and use their gifts, is beyond my ability. If that is going to happen,   I not only need the gifts God has already given me but I need Him to move on their lives. This teaches me to reach out to God and recognize my need for His help.

The point is we are dependant on God for everything. What I can do and what I am called to do all require the help of God. The good news is that the help is there, God is available.  When what I am given falls short of what I am called to do, I learn to cry out to God. This is how He develops our faith. This is in His will for the relationship He desires with us.

In these areas, asking is a condition of receiving. So, it is always time to pray and without prayer we will fall short of God’s Goal for our lives.

Pastor’s Comments on Prayer 3.25.08

In August of 2007, I felt that the Lord was telling me to raise the bar for prayer in our church. The core of who we have been since the inception of this fellowship has been founded on prayer. For years, my parents led a powerful Saturday night prayer service. We believed that the blessing of God was on us because of our prayers. Several years ago, we moved that service to Wednesday nights. I believe it is the most important service of the week. We face so many obstacles as a church and as believers that are absolutely too big for us in our own power, but they are not too big for God. One thing that has resonated with my heart these last few weeks is that we don’t have to beg or convince God of what we know He wants to do. We are just required to ask in faith and to present our prayers and requests to Him. He desires to move in ways beyond our ability, but He waits on our faithful appeal. Let’s make the appeal and see what God does.